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Wednesday, March 08, 2017

The Skinny: Isles 4, Edmonton 1

"The Skinny"

By Eric Hornick

Game 65

Isles 4, Edmonton 1

Joshua Ho-Sang scored his first NHL goal and Anders Lee scored twice, the latter into an empty net as the Islanders did something they haven't done in nearly 14 years – beat the Oilers in Edmonton. The Isles defeated the Oil 4-1 before a sellout crowd of 18,347 at Rogers Place.

It was the Isles' first visit to the Oilers' new home, and produced their first win in Edmonton in 5,108 days.

Andrew Ladd scored his 10th goal in the last 20 games for the Isles; Ladd and Lee now each have 10 goals until interim coach Doug Weight.

With the win, the Isles remain in the second wild card spot, one point ahead of Toronto.

The Isles are 14-6-3 (.674) under Interim Coach Doug Weight …Since opening the season 6-10-4, Isles are 25-13-7 in their last 454 games…The Isles are 5-2-1 in the last eight games…...The Isles are 23-0-5 when leading after 2 periods… With the win the Isles are assured of an NHL-.500 road trip (4-2-1 with 2 games to play) …Joshua Ho-Sang is the 360th player in Islander history to score a goal; he is the first Islander to score his first NHL goal on the power play since Matt Donovan did so against Phoenix on October 8, 2013.… Anders Lee matched a career-high with 25 goals; he now leads the team in goals ...The Isles defense contributed three assists…The Isles have scored seven empty-net goals…The Isles ended Connor McDavid's assist streak at 5.

The Injury

Shane Prince left the game after an upper-body injury and did not return.

M-#Isles-tone

Brock Nelson appeared in his 300th NHL game, all with the Isles. He is the 69th skater (71st player, including Billy Smith and Rick DiPietro) to reach that mark.

Moving On Up

Josh Bailey recorded his 296th point on Anders Lee's goal, breaking a tie with Mariusz Czerkawski for 20th place on the all-time Isles list. Bailey played in his 622nd Isles game, tying Stefan Persson for 11th place among skaters on the all-time club list. He is one game behind Billy Harris.

Passing Garth

Thomas Greiss has 44 wins as an Islander, breaking a tie with Garth Snow for 12th place on the all-time Islander list. Greiss is only the 2nd Islander goalie in the Post-Cup era to record consecutive seasons with at least 22 wins (DiPietro: 2003-04, 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08).

Playoff Chase:

Metropolitan

GP

PTS

1.Washington

65

95

2.Columbus

65

90

3.Pittsburgh

64

88

Atlantic

GP

PTS

1.Montréal

67

84

2.Ottawa

64

78

3.Boston

66

74

Wild Card

GP

PTS

1.NY Rangers

67

88

2.ISLANDERS

65

73

3.Toronto

65

72

4.Philadelphia

65

70

5.Tampa Bay

65

69

6.Florida

65

69

7.Buffalo

67

66

The Isles Magic Number to clinch a playoff berth is 34 (over Toronto and Boston).

Wednesday's games:

Pittsburgh @ Winnipeg 8pm

Ottawa @ Dallas 8pm

Detroit @ Boston 8pm

The Isles' Magic Number will fall to 32 if Boston loses in regulation or to 33 if Boston loses in overtime/shootout

Thursday's games:

Isles @ Vancouver 10pm

Rangers @ Carolina 7pm

Philadelphia @ Toronto 7:30

Minnesota @ Tampa Bay 7:30

Montreal @ Calgary 9pm

Washington @San Jose 10:30

Friday's games:

Minnesota @ Florida 7:30

Buffalo @ Columbus 7:00

Pittsburgh @ Edmonton 9:00

Last 34

The Isles are now 20-9-5 in their last 34 games (since December 20th vs. Boston). In those games, the PP is 18-97 (18.7%) and the penalty kill is 13-78 (83.3%).

#1 is #1 (aka The Greiss is Right)

Thomas Greiss has started 25 of the last 30 games (14-8-4 with three shutouts) and 28 of the last 35 games (16-8-4 with three shutouts).

Weight Lifted

Isles leading scorers since Doug Weight became the Isles' interim coach:

Games

Goals

Assists

Points

+/-

1

John Tavares

23

8

16

24

+7

2

Anders Lee

22

10

9

19

+4

3

Josh Bailey

23

6

11

17

+9

4

Ryan Strome

23

6

8

14

+1

Nick Leddy

23

3

11

14

+4

6

Brock Nelson

23

5

8

13

-2

7

Andrew Ladd

20

10

2

12

-2

8

Jason Chimera

23

8

3

11

+4

Two to Go

The Isles have two games remaining on their franchise-record nine consecutive road games. The Isles are 4-2-1 in this stretch, despite being outscored 19-18 (and 1-0 in the shootout):

·2/21 at Red Wings (Won 3-1)

·2/23 at Canadiens (Won 3-0)

·2/25 at Blue Jackets (Lost 0-7)

·3/2 at Stars (Won 5-4)

·3/3 at Blackhawks (Lost 1-2 SO)

·3/5 at Flames (Lost 2-5)

·3/7 at Oilers (Won 4-1)

·3/9 at Canucks

·3/11 at Blues

When this stretch ends, the Isles will have 15 games left, including seven at home.

A Different Road

The Isles improved to 9-9-2 in their last 20 road games, after winning only 2 of their first 11 road games (2-6-3).

Four Games, Four Time Zones

This was the first of 4 games the Isles will play in 7 games in four different time zones:

Following Saturday's game, the Isles will have only one game remaining outside the Eastern Time Zone – in Nashville on April 4th.

Home is Where the Heart Is

The Isles have earned points in their last 11 home games (9-0-2). It's their longest point streak at home in the post-Cup era. The last time the Isles had a longer streak was in 1982; the Isles ended the 1981-82 season with a 23-game unbeaten streak (21-0-2). That streak began on January 2, 1982 and was extended to 30 games over two seasons (28-0-2).

The last time that the Isles had a point streak of at least ten home games in a single season was in 1989-90, when they also earned points in ten straight games (12/16/1989 – 1/28/1990).

Longest Point Streaks in Post -Cup Era

11 – CURRENT (9-0-2)

10 - 12/16/89-01/28/90 (9-0-1)

10 – 3/24/13-10/17/13 (7-0-3 – Multi-season Streak)

The Shots

Isles 8-10-9=27

Edmonton 12-7-9=28

The Isles are 15-7-5 when they outshoot their opponents and 3-2-0 when the shots are even but are 13-15-5 when they are outshot.

Home and Road

The Islanders are 31-23-11 overall; 20-8-6 at home and 11-15-5 on the road.

Edmonton is 35-23-8 overall; 16-11-3 at home and 19-12-5 on the road.

By Division & Conference

The Isles are 9-8-4 in Division games and 22-15-7 in games versus other divisions (9-9-3 vs. Atlantic, 6-2-2 vs. Central and 7-4-2 vs. Pacific). The Isles are 18-17-7 against the East and 13-6-4 against the West.

In the Nets

Thomas Greiss made 27 saves to improve to 22-13-4 on the season and 2-3-0 in his career against Edmonton.

Cam Talbot made 33 saves but falls to 33-19-7 on the season and 5-2-0 in his career against the Isles.

Power Plays

The Isles went 1-1 on the power play, while Edmonton was 0-2.

The Isles are 14-6-6 when they score at least one power play goal and 17-17-5 when they do not. The Isles are 12-11-5 when they allow at least one power play goal and 19-12-6 when they do not.

Three is a Magic Number

The Isles are 30-5-3 when they score at least three goals (including shootout winners) and are 1-18-8 when they do not.

One Goal Games

The Isles are 9-8-11 in games decided by a single goal including 5-8-0 in regulation. They are 3-7 in games decided in overtime and are 1-4 in shootouts. The Isles are 4-1 in games in which an empty-net goal turns a 1 goal game into a 2-goal game (including one game that they allowed a goal after scoring an empty-netter).

First Goal

The Isles are 21-6-7 when they score first and are 10-17-4 when they allow the opening goal.

Back-to-Backs

The Isles are 5-6-1 on the front-end of back-to-backs and 4-3-5 on the back-end.

The Isles will play 16 sets of back-to-backs this season. The next back-to-back set is a home-and-home series with Carolina on March 13th in Brooklyn and March 14th in Raleigh.

Tired vs. Rested

·The Isles are 3-1-3 when both teams played the night before.

·The Isles are 5-3-2 when they are rested and their opponents are not.

·The Isles are 1-2-2 when their opponents are rested and the Isles are not.

The Isles have been tied in the third period in 12 of their 23 regulation losses (and 23 of their 34 overall losses) but have allowed the lead goal in the final 3 minutes of regulation seven times (including one game they rallied to win):

The Isles are 1-3-0 in day games (0-0-0 at home and 1-3-0 on the road) this season with two games to play:

·11/25 - at SJ Sharks (lost 2-3)

·1/16 – at Bos Bruins (won 4-0)

·2/11 – at Ott Senators (lost 0-3)

·3/5 - at Cal Flames (lost 2-5)

·3/18 – vs Col Blue Jackets

·4/2 – at Buf Sabres

The Isles finished last season 3-4-2 in day games (3-1-1 at home and 0-3-1 on the road).

Season Series Stats

The teams split the season series one game to one (The Isles earned three points to Edmonton's two).

The Isles had not won in their prior six games (0-5-1) in Edmonton, dating back to a 5-2 win at the then-named Skyreach Centre on March 13, 2003. Garth Snow was in the nets for the Islanders.

This had been a home-team series for a long time; the home team was 12-0-2 in the 14 games since that 2003 Isles win until tonight.

On The Farm

Jaroslav Halak made 41 saves, including 29 on 29 shots through two periods as the Sound Tigers broke a 2-game winless streak with a 5-3 win over Providence at home. Bridgeport is 36-19-2-1 on the season (and 18-4-1-0 in their last 23). Bridgeport is in 4th place in their division, even though they hold the 8th best record in the AHL.

Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Joshua Winquist added a goal and two assists in the win.

Bracken Kearns leads Bridgeport in goals (19) and points (19-22-41). Rookie Devon Toews leads the team in assists with 30. Ryan Pulock leads the defense with 12 goals (12-21-33 in only 37 games) while Jaroslav Halak leads the team in wins (15-3-3).

Bridgeport travels to Utica to face the Comets on Friday.

Up Next

THURSDAY, MARCH 9th – ISLANDERS AT VANCOUVER– 10:00PM

[MSG( No Pre-game), WNYM 970AM, 88.7 WRHU-FM, 103.9 WRCN]

Before the Islanders finally head back east, they head further west to play Vancouver

The Isles defeated the Canucks 4-2 in Brooklyn on November 7th and have won two straight from Vancouver, including a win at Rogers Place back on March 1st.

The Isles will be looking to win consecutive games in Vancouver for the first time since February 6, 1992-March 20, 1993 and will be looking for their first three-game win streak over the Canucks since they won five straight between October 1987 and October 1988.

This will also be the final game of the Western Canada portion of the trip. The Isles will be looking to win consecutive games on the same trip to Western Canada for the first time since December 4-6, 1983, when the still-Stanley Cup Champion Islanders won 4-2 in Edmonton and 5-2 in Vancouver.

Eric Hornick has been the statistician on Islander home game telecasts since January 21, 1982. Information contained in "The Skinny" has been gathered from various sources. Follow Eric @ehornick on Twitter & on his blog http://www.nyiskinny.com./

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since January 21, 1982. Visit my blog: NYISkinny.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick